Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

i pressed a combo of keys and now firefox types in chinese or similar ?

  • 4 replies
  • 5 have this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by Azz

more options

i was typing and accidently pressed a combination of kets (hotkeys ?). now i cant write in english using firefox, it appears to be chinese of another asian language of similar appearance. how do i undo this ? how did i do it ?

i was typing and accidently pressed a combination of kets (hotkeys ?). now i cant write in english using firefox, it appears to be chinese of another asian language of similar appearance. how do i undo this ? how did i do it ?

All Replies (4)

more options

It is possible that you accidentally switched the keyboard layout.
Make sure that you have the Language bar visible on the Windows Taskbar.
You can do that via the right-click context menu of the Taskbar: Toolbars > Language Bar.

See:


Check the keyboard language (keyboard layout) setting for the application that has focus via the icon on the Language bar.
You need to do that while Firefox has focus.
Windows remembers the keyboard layout setting per application.
The default to switch the layout is a key combination (Ctrl+Shift or Alt+Shift) that you can easily use in Firefox to activate a menu item.
Disable the key sequence to rotate layouts (Alt+Shift or Ctr+Shift) to avoid an unintentional switch and instead assign a specific key (Alt/Ctrl+Shift+number) to switch to the keyboard layout.

For XP see: Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Languages > Text services and input languages > Details > Key Settings > Change Key Sequence
For Vista see: Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Keyboards and Languages > Change keyboards > Advanced key settings > Change key sequence

Modified by cor-el

more options

Cor-El that solution only works if it is Windows that has changed the language. It isn't. Only Firefox has the problem. I am on IE now and typing in English. Word, Excel, etc are in English. Only Firefox is typing in another language.

more options

Current Window versions remember the language setting per application, so you need to check the above posted instructions.

more options

I use office 2010 and after installing the proofing tools I noticed all browsers and windows explorer where writing in asian, I checked the keyboards as advised above and indeed office had install Korean, chines, japanese and some others so i deleted all and now only have English US set and the Asian text stopped.